Here’s all you need to know about ‘Agricultural Infrastructure Fund’ launched by India

For agri-entrepreneurs, startups, agri-tech players and farmer groups, Indian PM Narendra Modi has launched a financing facility of Rs 1 lakh crore under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund.

Indian Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and senior ministry officials were also present on the occasion.

“The fund would bring about the creation of post-harvest management infrastructures and community farming assets such as cold storage, collection centres and processing units. These assets will enable farmers to get greater value for their produce, as they will be able to store and sell at higher prices, reduce wastage and increase processing and value addition. Rs 1 lakh crore will be sanctioned under the financing facility in partnership with multiple lending institutions,” read a release by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

The objective of the fund is to provide medium-to-long term debt financing for post-harvest infrastructure and community assets for the marketing of farm produce.

According to the guidelines, all loans up to ₹2 crore will be disbursed with a 3% interest subsidy.

The loans will be disbursed in the next four years with a sanction of ₹10,000 crore in 2020-21 and ₹30,000 crore in the next three years.

Here’s the full speech:

During the launch, PM interacted with farmers from primary agriculture credit societies. Indian Prime Minister urged farmers to stop indiscriminate use of chemical fertilisers in order to improve soil health.

Mr Modi also released the sixth instalment of about Rs 17,100 crore to over 8.55 crore farmer-beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme.